T-shirt Dresses...

Five more dresses sewn for Dress A Girl Around the World. The same as the last one, these are simple t-shirt dresses.

The first two, a size 2 and a size 4, are made with fabric sourced at the Fabric Cave sale earlier this year. If you live in Sydney near Ryde, the Fabric Cave is definitely worth a visit. I certainly wasn't disappointed, even though it took me well over an hour to get there.

Just look at the join between the t-shirt and the skirt... no puckering or wavy bits!!! Thank you Karen, from Dress A Girl Around the World - VA!!! Karen shows how to use iron on interfacing to overcome the problem of the seam not lying flat, in her Best T-shirt Dress tutorial. Such a simple tip, that makes a big difference to the overall look of the dress, even though I omitted the topstitching that Karen suggested.

I tend to use solid colours as a band at the bottom of dresses, but as the zig zag print was wider than the solid, I reversed the order this time. Instead of my usual gathers, I've inserted a pleat, which can hardly be seen from a distance.

Don't look at my ironing below!!! Look at the lovely flat seam. I've only shown two close ups, but they're all just as flat and neat. 

To obtain the correct dress lengths, I've used the overall measurements in Karen's Best T-shirt Dress tutorial. The lengths might be OK in the dresses below, but the proportions are not. The proportions in the orange and pink size 6 work well. In fact, that's my favourite dress of the five. 

Keeping the two bands roughly the same width in the size 7 purple dress, was not the best choice. Three bands of the same width might work, but with two bands, one needs to be smaller than the other. It's funny how such a small point can totally change the appearance of the dress.

These 5 dresses bring my total to 12 dresses made towards my goal this year, sewing for the Australian rep for Dress A Girl. Hmmm... it's half way through the year, but I'm not half way towards my goal.

I picked up the t-shirts on sale for $2 at Big W and knew they'd be perfect for t-shirt dresses.

While I was making the dresses, I noticed a Facebook post, by Erica, from Recycled Fashion, linking to an article about the recent 60 Minutes segment on Bangladesh and the Rag Trade. My cheap t-shirts were made in Bangladesh. This got me thinking... Here I was trying to help little girls in underprivileged countries, but was I unwittingly buying clothes sewn by women working for $1 per day in unsafe working conditions?

Initially I thought that from now on, I'd source my t-shirts from elsewhere, but on further reading, the survival of the Bangladeshi workers and their families depend on the income they derive from working in these factories.

Further reading took me to Oxfam and a list of the international companies who have indicated they will sign the Accord on Fire & Building Safety in Bangladesh. Since that list was made, K-Mart and Target (Australia) have signed the accord. Until Big W signs the accord (and I've let them know), I'll take my business to companies who will at least attempt to ensure safer working conditions for the people who work in their factories.

I'm not naive enough to think that the Accord will solve all the problems of workers in the third world, but at least it's a start. 

In the past, I knew of the problems regarding workers making clothes that I ended up buying, but all I did was acknowledge in my head that there was a problem. Amy, from Sews n Bows, started to educate me with a great post on fabrics and where they originate.

I now realise, that the big companies we buy from, will listen to consumers. I have a lot more reading to do to educate myself properly...

... Pam